It's funny how most articles don't outright say it, as if afraid it'll cause a controversy. Most articles are too PC these days and pretend just because its the 21st century, racism doesn't exist...when Lin's story blantantly proves otherwise.
Of course the oversight of Lin throughout his career was because of his race. The guy was a winner all the way through. I actually reviewed his summer league highlights again and he had NBA elite speed which should have been enough to at least be drafted.
Looking at his draft class in retrospect I wonder where he would have been selected. Top Ten imo for sure and over his career he may end up enjoying more on-court success than almost all of those players outside of Paul George & Larry Sanders. John Wall, Eric Bledsoe & Demarcus Cousins are all great physical specimens but are still inherently flawed in significant ways. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2010_NBA_Draft
Definitely top 10. If Mike Conley was a 4th pick, I think we can say Lin coulda gone top 10 in his draft, which was actually pretty weak overall.
That's kinda in hindsight really given Linsanity and his recent play. He wasn't that good back then during his stint in Golden State, and what we're seeing right now is the fruit of really hard work by Lin during his years of bouncing around in the NBA. I think that improves his game and his approach to the PG position a lot. I'd say in comparison with his ability when he first came out of Harvard, he would have been a late first round to early second round perhaps.
Hard to show much when you only get to play a few minutes here and there, and mostly garbage minutes. But then he was with good companies with that team, so it was going to be hard to grab any real minutes anyway.
At the time Lin should have went anywhere from mid to late first, even the 2nd round would have been a gross undervaluation at the time. - 4 years college experience leading an overachieving team - Great coachability - Team orientated player - Good size for the PG position (height and raw frame) - Elite draft combine numbers - Elite speed - Fearless attacking rim and in critical moments Primary drawback is playing in a weak conference and his size. Points can be made that he played exceedingly well in his match-ups against top flight teams and should have been in a tier-1 college and there are plenty of players who come into the NBA stick-thin, and players still who didn't look to be able to put on size - Brandon Jennings, Nate Robinson, Monta Ellis and Stephen Curry come to mind straight-up.
The truth is he needs to shoot a lot more and take away some of Harden's shots when the guy is off like tonight. He also needs to impose his duty as a PG on the team and continue to be aggressive and attack. If we get that Jeremy Lin every night, he can be a quality starter for years to come.
FWIW, Morey said that the Rockets analytics "liked" him, but not so much where he distinguished himself from the pack. There were other young PGs the Rockets also rated just as highly in that draft, and they never panned out. So it's not just his race. Perhaps his race hurt him in the sense that he ended up playing at Harvard, a school that didn't face enough top college competition for his stats to translate accurately, but at least the Rockets couldn't find enough data to support drafting him high(I believe they didn't have a 2nd rounder that year, or they might've taken a flier).
The Lakers told him they would draft him, but they didn't. Anyone know the story behind that? Weird to think he could have been a Laker.
Well, let's forget about my other claims and consider the thousands of posts from Asian-Americans that I've read on this very board. Obviously they have not helped me gain any understanding, which means either that the posts are useless or I am a complete idiot. I know which one you'll pick. You know which one I'll pick: all your crying the blues on this board has been useless. Tell me about all the difficulties. Educate the idiots like me. People don't think Asian-American males are masculine enough? Small pen!s stereotype? Not strong/quick enough? Automatically considered the best at math and computers? Parents make you study piano or violin instead of dribbling a basketball? Parents actually racist against black people but hate racism against Asians? Not enough TV shows with people like you in them? Come on, help the idiots of the world like me to understand. And if you don't think the idiots like me can learn, then shut up because your laments are useless.
SirBaihu, Firstly, it's good that you have an interest in China and in Asian-American stuff. It's certainly better than apathy, and way better than xenophobic hostility. Secondly, I didn't mean to disrespect Yao, who I think was not only a great player but a phenomenal ambassador and human being who should be credited more in the future with the global explosion of the NBA. Thirdly, when I meant genetic anomaly, I meant relative to their peers. Yao is gigantic, even for the NBA. Lin, meanwhile, is not significantly bigger, stronger, or faster than his peers. Why does that matter? Because, as I said before, Lin's story is way more about basketball. I get that you've been involved with Asian and Asian-American interests before. But I'm guessing that you're White, or at least non-Asian. Therefore, you don't know what it's like to have lived your whole life as part of a racial group. At best, you've had the privilege of "becoming Asian" whenever it suited you, while also retaining the ability to shed that identity whenever it became inconvenient. Actual people of Asian descent don't have that advantage, so they have a MUCH more accurate gauge on what matters in terms of racial issues. We all have to realize our limitations. I'm a guy, which means I'll never know what it's like to be a woman. Therefore, whenever I hear a woman talk about female-specific issues like rape, abortion, domestic violence, workplace inequality, or even seemingly frivolous stuff like the social importance of fashion, I should shut up and defer to her knowledge and experience. I should assume that I don't know what the hell I'm talking about, because frankly, I don't. The same goes for you with regards to being Asian. While it's great that you have such an interest, that's all that is: an interest. You've never actually had to live as an Asian, so you get to have wonderful privileges like being unaware of and unaffected by anti-Asian stereotypes regarding Asian men. Anyway, back to Jeremy Lin. He is important to Asian-Americans because he was the victim of the exact same doubts that all of them have faced at some point, especially the men. Yao was the victim of many doubts as well, but they were very different sorts of doubts due to his size advantage and the fact that he was from overseas. But despite the relentless stereotyping, Lin has succeeded. So if he can succeed, why can't any other Asian-American, whether in business or arts or love or academia or sports, etc.? Stereotypes are self-perpetuating and unfortunately, many Asian-Americans have internalized the notions that work against them. People like Jeremy Lin help prove once again that our beliefs are often the biggest obstacles in our paths, and that we don't have to accept other people's prejudices as truth.
Impossible. Consistency is a basis of skills and experience. Even the very best players to every play in the NBA can't be consistent in their 'true' first year starting in the NBA.
Guys who would go ahead of him for sure: Wall, Favors, Cousins, Monroe, George ,Bledsoe, Sanders and Bradley. Debatable would be Ed Davis, Vasquez, Turner and Stephenson
Good post. Anyways, I'm glad people (like clyde) are FINALLY giving JL props for his SPEED. it is one of the most dumbfounding things to me. All these homer announcers and media pundits who watch him blow past people or go coast to coast in less than 4 seconds and disbelieve his speed. Saying chyt like "he's deceptively quick" or "he's faster than he looks" or "he doesn't have breakaway speed"....they watch him with their own EYES and still don't credit him for it. If DRose drives past you with a good move because he's DRose. And you catch up to him from behind and swat his shot, are you quick or not? It's not a fluke, he didn't just use one of the three Nitros sent from heaven. If people would just believe their own eyes, he wouldn't have had to prove the same thing 10x over, but society is brainwashed with preconceived notions. The NBA is no different. What JL has done--which very few people do in history in ANY field not just sports or basketball--is that he has CHANGED preconceived notions. READ--it has **** all to do with BASKETBALL. It has everything to do with changing the collective brainwashed mindsets of a portion of our society. That is why he is loved.
Good post. Also, I'm sure everyone deemed to be a "minority" in anywhere in the world can say this to the majority. I don't know how many times i've heard blacks say this to whites...
